Books we've been reading V2.0

[Monte Carlo]

World War Z by Max Brookes (I think)

 

Didn't think it would be my cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

A clever, occasionally witty, thoroughly entertaining exercise in world building.

 

Recommended.

[Enoch]

A suitably pulpy suggestion for this crowd:

 

Dead Harvest, by Chris F. Holm

 

It was described to me as "Raymond Chandler's Faust," which is a reasonably appropriate quip. A narrator who is a Collector of marked souls for Hell (a deceased human who works for demons, per the terms of a demonic contract) is sent to collect a soul who he concludes to be Innocent, refuses, and flees with the supposedly-innocent girl, pursued by the powers of both Hell and Heaven as he tries to figure out how, why, and by whom they were set up. The writing isn't especially excellent-- it takes on the trappings of classic noir detective fare, but so far hasn't gotten past stylistic mimicry of Hammett, et al., to develop much style of its own. But the conceptual novelty and admirable thriller-pacing mostly overcome that and keep me reading. It's the first volume of a planned series, with the second, The Wrong Goodbye planned for release this fall. Has a lovely faux-vintage-pulp cover. I'm about 2/3rds of the way through, and enjoying it a lot.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Enoch

[Oerwinde]

Currently re-reading Wizards First Rule. You could almost make it a drinking game. Take a shot every time you read the phrase "white hot need" or any variation of such.

 

Eagerly anticipating the A Dance With Dragons release in paperback in August. Don't have the cash or the shelf space to buy hardcovers.

[Labadal]

Started reading The Dark Tower books by Stephen King. I have no clue if they are good or not. I have book 1 & 2, so I'm about to find out.

[Raithe]

I have to admit, whilst I like a lot of the ideas King has developed, I've found most of his actual writing to be kind of crappy. There's a few gems, but most seem (from an enjoyable read viewpoint) kind of dreary and more in the make a serious effort to turn pages then a sit down and read in some flowing hours...

[Guard Dog]

Now reading The Dog Cancer Survival Guide bu Dr. Damien Dressler. My pups are all healthy (although they are all elderly now). I'm just interested in the cancer prevention/mitigation diet tips and nutricuticals guide.

[Kor Qel Droma]

World War Z by Max Brookes (I think)

 

Didn't think it would be my cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

A clever, occasionally witty, thoroughly entertaining exercise in world building.

 

Recommended.

 

I thought that book became better and better the more I read of it. I quite enjoyed it.

Started reading The Dark Tower books by Stephen King. I have no clue if they are good or not. I have book 1 & 2, so I'm about to find out.

 

I found the Gunslinger a bit slow, but The Drawing Of The Three is a pretty great sequel, IMO.

 

I've been plodding through the third book in the WildCard series, and skimming a bit of a Lovecraft anthology. Not really reading much, but making time to read has felt like a chore lately.

[Krookie]

Got too sucked into Game of Thrones and started the book series. First half of the first book would have been pretty confusing if I hadn't watched season 1

[Raithe]

Elfhome - Wen Spencer

 

It had been a weird summer, even by Tinker's standards. So far she had accidentally changed her species, unknowingly gotten married, ripped a hole in the fabric of reality, fell off the planet, crashed a spaceship into Turtle Creek and fought a dragon. If that wasn't enough to set some kind of weirdness, there were twenty days left of summer to go. Trying to explain everything would take half the afternoon, a large white board, and a great deal of advanced physics.

 

A nice little mix of fantasy meets sci-fi..

[HoonDing]

To fully enjoy Dark Tower series, reading some books connected to it like Eyes of the Dragon & Hearts in Atlantis is necessary as well. Even It is connected to it in a way.

 

I wish King (and Straub) would complete The Talisman -> Black House series. Before the last three DT books came out I had expected the protagonist(s) to play a role in DT but nothing came of it. The last three books are a huge disappointment in many ways. Maybe if King hadn't been driven over in 1999 things would've been much different.

[entrerix]

I really enjoyed World War Z. It was fun, and clever enough that I enjoyed it throughout. Not perfect either of course, but a good enough book that I recommended it to a few others when I finished it a few years ago.

 

im currently reading the most recent of the Game of Thrones books. the books were, on the whole, better than i was expecting by leaps and bounds. It's no wonder people keep talking about them.

 

after i'm done with game of thrones i want to read something scary, anyone have any recommendations?

[Monte Carlo]

I really enjoyed World War Z. It was fun, and clever enough that I enjoyed it throughout. Not perfect either of course, but a good enough book that I recommended it to a few others when I finished it a few years ago.

 

im currently reading the most recent of the Game of Thrones books. the books were, on the whole, better than i was expecting by leaps and bounds. It's no wonder people keep talking about them.

 

after i'm done with game of thrones i want to read something scary, anyone have any recommendations?

 

Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory. Freaky. Scary. Brilliant.

[entrerix]

 

 

Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory. Freaky. Scary. Brilliant.

 

hah! that was on my amazon wishlist, your recommendation tipped the scales so i just bought that plus dan simmons Song of Kali, and shirley jacksons We Have Always Lived in the Castle

[Monte Carlo]

Cool let me know what you thought.

 

I read it many years ago when it first came out and was blown away by how horrible it was. I've never read Banks' sci-fi stuff, I always imagine him as a clever horror writer. But, of course, his horror isn't supernatural, it's very much rooted in the real world. Which makes it scarier IMO.

[WDeranged]

I'm very close to the end of A Game of Thrones, I read three or four chapters a day and then listen to the Boars Gore and Swords podcast, it's the most fun I've had with a book in years, it's going to be hard not to read the whole Ice and Fire series before season 3 airs.

[Oerwinde]

Well so far they've done a fantastic job adapting the books. What changes they've made either were mostly unimportant, or made sense for either medium or budget reasons.

 

Probably the only adaption I haven't been pissed off at at some point (I'm looking at you The Walking Dead")

Edited June 23, 2012 by Oerwinde

[Guard Dog]

Now reading Unsaid by Neil Abramson. This book lhas lived up to the hype so far. For a change.

 

Also reading The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by JRR Tolkien. This is the last of his published work I have not read. I just started it last night.

[Lexx]

I just finished the Dark Tower yesterday. It was pretty nice, though the books had quite a few boring moments, mainly because King apparently likes to babble around a lot, then he switches to a different character and babbles about the same situation again. It was still worth it, but in times... I thought he could reduce that a bit. No wonder most of the books got 1000+ pages.

 

Reading The Old Man and the Sea from Ernest Hemingway now.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Lexx

[entrerix]

im about halfway through game of thrones book 5

 

its better than the fourth book, but still not as good as the third one

 

i'll probably not finish it for another week or so, these books are long.

[Monte Carlo]

I am reading The Fear Index by Robert Harris, a thriller about a complex financial trading computer program that predicts fear in markets and trades accordingly.

 

It has a fairly unsympathetic protagonist I'm struggling with TBH, but as with all of Harris' work the plotting and detail is compelling. Part of it, where all the mutli-zillionaire investors visit the clinical Swiss offices of the trading company, reads like a twisted version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[walkerguy]

Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe

Multiple authors

Many short stories from the Halo universe

[entrerix]

second half of game of thrones book 5 is really picking up, i read that a lot of people didn't like this book very much, seems pretty good to me, except for the bran chapters, which are so incredibly uninteresting to me i'm getting SORELY tempted to just skip them.

 

i cant help but feel the author is trying to do too much sometimes

[Starwars]

Been reading 'The Road' by Cormack McCarthy. Had seen the film which I really enjoyed so figured I'd read the book also.

 

Took a while to get into the unusual writing style but once you get used to it, it's pretty effective for the bleak style the book is going for. Nearly finished and I've really enjoyed it.

 

The short, sorta clipped writing style kinda reminds me of Ulysses' speech patterns in Lonesome Road (though Ulysses talks a whole lot more than the characters in the book of course).

[HoonDing]

Read the Black Company. Cook tells in one paragraph what take Jordan, Martin and their ilk 300 pages. The narrator is the camp doctor who basically quickly writes notes in his journals between marches and battles.

 

Goes downhill in the series after that with different narrators but still pretty good compared to the fantasy crap that's on the bestsellers list nowadays.

[Raithe]

I enjoyed most of the Black Company, although as you say it gets a bit twisty as it goes along in the following books.

The one thing that's always struck me as a touch awkward though is how the language used is very.. vietnam war film transposed into a fantasy world .. When you get the soldiers discussing how to "frag the officers" or such like.